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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Akagi Chapter 138

After a Month-Long hiatus, FKMTkrazy makes its triumphant return with the 138th chapter of Tohai Densetsu Akagi!! In this chapter, Washizu makes a startling realization that causes him to re-evaluate his whole strategy...! Thanks to Crump for the cleans, and to Kazuhiko for the superb typesetting! Wow!

"The man sitting across from me is still far, far away from that level of corruption...!"

This chapter gives us an interesting peek at what Washizu's life has been like to this point: it shows his clients at his consultancy firm and how thankful they were to have the information they'd need to cheat the system and recieve their reward without any risk. It is for this reason that Washizu has always thought that nobody on the planet would be capable of ignoring risk and shooting straight for the maximum possible reward, explaining why he was so shocked to find that Akagi was going to extend the 5th session through Honba. His mistake was not realizing this earlier and allowing himself to be taken advantage of by not thinking through why Akagi was ignoring the risk of giving himself more chances to have his blood drained from him. But by recalling the expressions on the faces of his greedy, corrupt, cowardly clients and comparing them to the expression that Akagi has, he was able to piece together that Akagi does not consider risk as long as there is a reasonable reward to follow.

Going back to previous arcs, this makes sense given Akagi's character; when he was facing Nakai, he never considered for a moment that he might lose all of Osamu's money. He knew he could beat Nakai no matter what he pulled, so all he wanted was to teach him a lesson. Also, he has never kept the winnings from any of his games. He has always blown it off on gambling or given it away to keep himself stuck in poverty, and thus the simple life. That in mind, he is completely unlike any of the clients that Washizu gave advice to: He does not seek to acquire wealth, nor does he particularly care if he loses everything he has, up to and including his life (but stopping squarely at his dignity). In stark contrast, Washizu's clients ONLY seek to acquire wealth and increase their social standing. They are desperately afraid to be sent to the poverty level that Akagi so readily accepts... forget about giving up their lives to keep something as valueless as their dignity. It is for this reason that Washizu must accept that he cannot use the mode of reasoning he has been using on Akagi any longer: Akagi is unique, abnormal, and willing to die to have a shot at killing Washizu, who he sees as the worst kind of person.